Homemade Bread & Butter Pickles ♥ Freezer Recipe

A recipe from a reader, easy bread and butter pickles. No canning required, can be kept in the freezer for months!

Many thanks to an anonymous reader who left her recipe for bread and butter pickles a couple of years back. I actually made these late last fall -- although too late to share -- and then nibbled on them off and on throughout the winter.

The pickles are great -- crunchy but not too crunchy, sweet but not too sweet, 'pickly' but not too pickly. They are as simple to make as opening a jar -- well, almost. There's no canning required, just plop them into freezer containers.

I love having homemade pickles on hand. Call me silly but somehow a quick sandwich seems more like a meal when there are pickles alongside.

HOMEMADE BREAD & BUTTER PICKLES

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Time to table: 24 - 48 hours
Makes 4 - 8 pints

LIQUID
1 cup white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon mustard seed

7 - 14 cups pickling cucumbers, blossom and stem ends trimmed, sliced into rounds if small and half-rounds if larger (see NOTES)
1 cup onion, sliced thin in rounds or half rounds, rings separated

Bring the liquid ingredients to a boil, let cool a bit. Place the cucumbers and onions in a large crock or glass jar. Pour hot liquid over top. Weight the cucumbers to submerge in the liquid (see NOTES). If desired, add more cucumbers over the next day or so. Refrigerate and let stand for at least 24 hours after the last cucumbers are added. Transfer to freezer containers and freeze until ready to use.

KITCHEN NOTES
Use the smallest pickling cucumbers you can find, otherwise they'll be full of seeds which aren't inedible but do affect the aesthetics of the pickles and don't agree with some digestive systems.
Add about 7 cups of sliced cucumbers straight off. They'll shrink considerably so add more cucumbers the next day as room is made.
For weighting the cucumbers, I used a small plate topped with an empty glass jar filled with water.

---

VEGETABLE RECIPES from the ARCHIVES
~ how to freeze corn ~
~ how to freeze tomatoes ~
~ Homemade Zucchini Relish ~

~ more 'canning' and preserving recipes ~
~ more recipes for 'refrigerator' pickles (no 'canning' required) ~

---

PRINT JUST A RECIPE! Now you can print a recipe without wasting ink and paper on the header and sidebar. Here's how.

NEVER MISS A RECIPE! For 'home delivery' of new recipes from A Veggie Venture, sign up here. Once you do, new recipes will be delivered, automatically, straight to your e-mail In Box.

---

Looking for healthy ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous Alphabet of Vegetables. Healthy eaters will love the low carb recipes and the Weight Watchers recipes.
© Copyright 2009